Overview
- Uses the perspective of a small, postcolonial nation to evidence the importance of cultural participation
- Demonstrates that understanding cultural participation helps inform arts and cultural policy
- Illustrates the need for future research to develop understandings specific to generations, class and geographies
Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Cultural Participation (PSCP)
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About this book
This book provides a nuanced account of cultural competence, knowledge and skills illustrated in distinctive taste in the middle and upper classes in Dublin, Ireland (Bourdieu, 1984, 1986). It highlights how the development of cultural taste at a young age is linked to cultural participation in later life. Inspired by work that captures the textured social cartography of distinctive cultural taste (Bennett, Emmison & Frow, 1999; Bennett, Savage, Silva, Warde, Gayo-Cal & Wright, 2009), this research charts the changing nature of cultural participation in Dublin, Ireland and shows how cultural consumption has broadened from the narrow range of traditional high art forms towards one which grazes across the general register of culture. As elsewhere, this omnivorous, broad and pluralistic cultural palette has not altered patterns of distinction in cultural participation, rather it belies an emerging cultural capital profile - one where art form boundaries have collapsed but social boundaries and cultural distinction remains intact. Through interviews with two age cohorts (18-24yrs) and (45-54yrs) in Dublin in 2019, this research shows how the dominant class, through histories of cultural exposure have developed cultural taste and competence that is remarkably enduring. Reviewing available data on arts attendance and cultural participation in Ireland today, this text highlights how years of cultural familiarity allow individuals to exert a cultural dominance that facilitates class to be performed obliquely. It also demonstrates how existing surveys reinforce traditional ways of seeing with 'art' considered highbrow, formal and valued while culture is domestic, informal and less valued in the eyes of polity. This view informs Irish arts strategy and policy, ultimately reinforcing that 'ways of seeing' and policy perspectives, do matter (Berger, 1972).
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Keywords
Table of contents (7 chapters)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Kerry McCall Magan is Country Director for the British Council in Ireland. In this role, Kerry is engaged in strategic cultural relations activity between the UK and Ireland that fosters understanding, knowledge and trust between both nations, in the areas of arts and culture, higher education and youth development. Prior to this, Kerry’s career has included senior roles in higher education, and the arts and cultural sectors in Ireland.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Cultural Participation
Book Subtitle: The perpetuation of middle-class privilege in Dublin, Ireland
Authors: Kerry McCall Magan
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Cultural Participation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18755-1
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-18754-4Published: 02 January 2023
eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-18755-1Published: 01 January 2023
Series ISSN: 2661-8699
Series E-ISSN: 2661-8702
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: X, 140
Topics: Sociology of Culture, Social Structure, Social Inequality, Cultural Studies